As well as bombings with multiple deaths in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Paris, London, and Barcelona.

Well all of this happened. It was the work of a loose cabal who adhered to a variety of versions of Anarchism. Anarchism was (is) an extremely foolish idea that all government is offensive and bad. Although there was a peculiar group of Anarchists who were also surprisingly marxists. (proving that if you are an idiot you will fall for all sorts of bad ideas).

The anarchists worked to use terror to bring down governments, needless to say their efforts had the opposite effect. It made them pariahs to the common people and caused governments to greatly expand their surveillance and control of the population.

How did the governments of the time deal with the anarchist threat? Well, they didn’t have to, events, (primarily the First World War) caused the anarchist movement to lose steam and fizzle out.

However, our government reacted to the threat in a very energetic manner. Anarchists were arrested and detained on no other suspicion but that they advocated anarchism. The Anarchist lecturer Emma Goldman was thrown out of the country.

A few people protested these actions but they were not all that controversial. More controversial was the arrest and conviction of Saccho and Vanzeti for a killing and robbery. But that is only because the radical left took up their cause. There was never much real doubt that Sacco was guilty, Vanzetti may have been innocent of the murders, but certainly knew about it and was at any rate in possession of weapons and explosives.

I think that these sort of waves of violence and bizarre religions and ideologies will from time to time sweep upon and test the civilized nations of the world. They just have to be dealt with from a position of strength and a lack of fear until the wave passes.